(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Tension has enveloped Enugu over the arrest of the youth
leader of the All progressive Congress in Enugu, Prince James Nwanjoku Okugo,
following a petition written against him to the Inspector General of Police,
Mohammed Adamu, by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, who
claimed that the party chieftain published a false information against him on
the dreaded COVID 19 status.

Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Unit domiciled at the police Area Command had on Friday whisked away the APC youth leader from his home in Aninri council Area of Enugu state on the alleged order of the police boss.

Onyema
had earlier in a petition, accused the APC Chieftain of publishing a
false information against him and his personnel assistant , Mr Flavour Eze in
the social media platform to the effect that they were infested with the deadly
Coronavirus which has been ravaging the entire globe, including Nigeria.

The
Minister further claimed that Nwanjoku, said he intentionally came back
with the virus thereby putting the people at risk, pointing out that the
information was libelous.

Reacting
to the development, Chairman of APC in Enugu state, Dr. Ben Nwoye, who
condemned the arrest of the APC youth leader in its entirety, described the
action as quite unfortunate.

Nwoye
regretted that the minister was using his office to harass and intimidate the
party members in the state and wondered why such a civil matter could lead to
the continuous detention of the party chieftain without bail.

The
party boss in the state, also expressed regrets that even when the
party’s legal adviser in the state Barrister Benjamin Nembe and other lawyers
had appealed to the police to allow them take Nwanjoku on bail, the
police still refused, insisting that they were acting on orders from
above.

Nwoye
insisted that the alleged commando style of arresting the APC chieftain
was bad and therefore, called on the Inspector General of Police to Wade into
the matter as the continuous detention of the party Chieftain without
charging him to court amounts to breach of his fundamental human rights.

According
to the chairman, it was unfortunate that the Minister who ought to be using his
position to better the fortune of the party chooses to always create
unnecessary problems for the party in the state.

The
APC legal adviser Barrister Nembe, who also spoke to newsmen, said all
frantic efforts he made to take the suspect on bail proved abortive as the
police bluntly refused him, wife, of Nwanjoku and other members of
the family access to him, describing the development as quite unfortunate

Efforts
by newsmen to speak with the coordinator of the IGP’s intelligence unit at the
Enugu Police area Command, hit the rock, as some of the operatives who were on
plain uniform at the gate refused the media entrance into the
premises, saying, “our oga no dey, you people can go to press and write
what you want to write, The arrest was based on order from the inspector general
of police” one of the officers said.